Creative Design - Lines

So I started another course at Metro. This course is entitled Creative Design in Photography and covers various elements of design as they apply to photography. Our first assignment was to produce 3 images that show strong use of lines. There are many different types of lines - straight, diagonal, parallel, horizontal, spiral, convergent, etc. Each type of line can convey different feelings or emotions depending on how they are arranged. I had several ideas for this assignment and of course as soon as you start to look for lines you start to see them everywhere. I finally decided on the following three images:

The first image I took in the River Valley near the Valley zoo. It was a birch tree that had a very interesting pattern and an almost perfectly straight line running across it. There were also lines in the dark part of the bark as well as lines created by the shadows of the trees behind me.

The second image was a still life entitled "Bachelor Fine Dining" I played around with this one quite a bit but finally settled on this one because I felt that I was able to capture the correct color without blowing out the hilites on the fork and knife.

The third image happened accidentally. I had actually been shooting three books stacked one on another. As I was putting the books back on the shelf, I happened to flip over this copy of East of Eden and realized that the pages of the book formed some very interesting lines as they were rough cut instead of the nice smooth edge you normally found on a book. I flipped the book on edge and snapped away resulting in the third image.

Based on feedback I received in class, my instructor thought that the image of the book would have been just a bit stronger if it had been turned forward slightly so that you could see the back of the book. Anytime you have text the eye is drawn to it and the view wants to see more. The shadow cast on the bottom bothered me at first but some people found that it added another great line to the image and gave a sense of depth. Another comment from Chantal was that she would have liked to seen more separation between the book and the background as it tends to just look like a book floating in space. If I had added some light or overexposed the shot by a about a 1/2 stop, I probably could have revealed more of the background.

Overall it was a great exercise and now I can't stop looking at lines everywhere I go. Next assignment - color.

Photoshop Level I Complete

On Wednesday I completed my first Photoshop course at N.A.I.T. The next course starts up in February so I have some time between now and then to practice what I've learned. I thought for today's posting I would share a tip with respect to buying Photoshop. If you register for a class at NAIT, you can get student pricing on hardware and software at the Tech Store.  The regular retail price for the CS3 Master Collection is $2499 USD and it includes:

• Photoshop CS3
• Illustrator CS3
• Flash CS3
• Dreamweaver CS3
• Fireworks CS3
• InDesign CS3
• Contribute CS3
• After Effects CS3
• Premiere
• Soundbooth
• Encore
• Bridge
• Acrobat 8

However, if you are registered for a course at NAIT, you can pick up the full suite for only $549 which is still cheaper than just Photoshop by itself if you bought the full version. Definitely a great deal if you are student. You can learn more about the full Master suite at  http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/. If you don't need the web development applications like Flash, Dreamweaver, and Fireworks, you can pickup the Creative Suite 3 Design Premium for around $300. It combines Adobe InDesign® CS3, Photoshop® CS3 Extended, Illustrator® CS3, Flash® CS3 Professional, Dreamweaver® CS3, Acrobat® 8 Professional, Bridge CS3, Version Cue® CS3, and Device Central CS3.

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Tips from the Top Floor Podcast

There are many great Podcasts out there devoted to Photography and Photoshop but one of my favourites is Tips from the Top Floor. This regularly updated Podcast alternates between a video and audio format. Each episode runs from between 5 - 20 minutes and contains some great tips covering a variety of topics such as working with your DSLR camera, image composition, and image processing. The episodes are delivered in an easy to understand format without being too techie or too simplistic. From time to time, the show will also have assignments that listeners can participate in by submitting their photos.

I discovered this Podcast while listening to one of Leo Laporte's weekly Podcasts on the TWIT network. The host, Chris Marquart is from Germany and shows up on the Tech Guy Podcast as a regular guest with a segment on Photography.

I've picked up some great tips from this Podcast and would highly recommend it to anyone interested in photography - whether you are a seasoned pro or just starting out.

Painting with Light

It's my third week of my "Understanding Light" course and my assignment for this week is to produce 3 examples of painting with light. For those not familiar with the technique, it involves photographing scenes in low-light conditions by "painting" the scene with a variety of light sources. This happens to be the speciality of my instructor who's work you can see at www.nightstockphoto.com.

The technique basically consists of setting up your shot, setting your camera to Bulb exposure, opening up the lens using your cable release and then painting the scene using your light source.For my shots, I had to purchase a couple of items including a cable release, some flashlights, and color gels. I stopped by Vistek to pickup my cable release, UK Products for some flashlights, and All-Star Show Industries to get the colored gels (translucent sheets of colored paper normally used in stage and theatre lighting).

Armed with these tools, I set out to start painting. My first subject was a Japanese stone lantern from our front yard. I first tried to shoot it outdoors but couldn't find a good setting that was dark enough. I eventually moved it indoors where I could control the light better.  In this example I lit the lantern from the inside with a tea light and then painted the outside with a small flashlight covered with a red gel. I used my 18-55mm lens with a focal length of 34 mm, an ISO of 200, and my aperture set at f8.

For my next shots, I moved outdoors to the lake near our house to try and capture some of the late fall cattails on the lake. The pathway around the lake has many sodium vapor lights so the first challenge was to find a spot dark enough. Fortunately we managed to find one nice dark corner and one spot where one of the bulbs had burned out. For my first shot I used the same camera settings as I used with the lantern, along with a combination of yellow and orange gels. For the second shot, I switched to my Tamron 18 - 200mm lens with a focal length of 54 mm, an ISO of 200, and an aperture of f18. I used a slightly larger flashlight with a blue gel applied to it.

Overall it was a great learning experience and definitely a great way to gain a better understanding of light. Not sure if I can see myself heading out in the wilderness to shoot in the middle of the night but you never know.

iPhone - Revision 2

So it's only been a few months since the iPhone was launched and I managed to scoop the exclusive photos of the 2nd generation Apple iPhone. Check it out!

Okay, just kidding. This was actually a test shot I submitted for my class on Understanding light. To achieve this shot, I first setup my props on some inexpensive black velvet. Then I setup my camera on my tripod and used my Canon 50mm f1.8 lens to shoot this scene. The objective was to illustrate the four different lighting positions: front, back, side and three quarter-lighting.

In this particular shot, I propped up a piece of white foam core on top of my camera and then shone an LED flashlight up from below the camera. I was pretty pleased with the even lighting effect I was able to achieve which gave the image a very lifelike 3D look and feel. Class is tomorrow so we'll see what Chantal has to say about it.

Fall Courses Start for Me

So fall is here and it's back to school for me. For the next 8 weeks I'll be taking three courses at both NAIT and Metro College. My first course is a course at Metro on understanding light being taught by Chantal Thorlakson. She does some really neat painting with light photography which you can see at www.nightstockphoto.com. Check out Metro's course offerings at www.metrocontinuingeducation.ca.

The second course is a Photoshop course at NAIT geared specifically towards photographers. I've been meaning to learn Photoshop for quite some time so I decided that rather than hack around in it and try to guess my way around, I would take a course and finally learn how to use it properly. The new NAIT lab my class is in is full of shiny new iMacs which is nice because I've been considering upgrading to one to use for all my photography work. Visit www.nait.ab.ca for information on their photography programs.

Once my Understanding Light course is done I'll be taking another course at Metro called Creative Design in Photography Level I. Once that has been completed I will receive the first level of recognition so that I can move on to more advanced courses.

My First Ever Winning Contest Entry
I belong to a Facebook group called the Young Edmonton Photographers Group and each month the group holds a challenge. The first challenge was for the month of August and was a portrait challenge. I entered this photo that I shot in Barcelona and it was selected by the group as the winning entry! The reward is that my photo will be used as the group's photo for the month of September. Not exactly something I'll be able to retire on but it was great to have my portrait selected by my peers. There were some great photos submitted so I was definitely suprised to win.

The next challenge is an Urban Photography Challenge where we will try to capture Edmonton's urban soul. I have a couple of shots that I plan on submitting. I can't wait to see what the other members of the group come up with.
(http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2888804300)